


The Sound of Silence

by StormofImagination



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 01:37:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10232783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormofImagination/pseuds/StormofImagination
Summary: (Semi AU) Police Officers are heroes, people who put their lives at risk every day in order to save others. However, it's never easy when an officer goes down..





	

A hero is someone who rises every morning, never knowing if he’ll be returning home that night. - Whole Truth Project

The single echo of a gunshot seemed to shatter JJ’s reality in an instant, her heart clenching as it sunk in her chest. “Will!” She screamed, the heart-wrenching scream barely one she recognized as her own. Her sidearm a dull weight in her hand, almost un-noticeable through the overwhelming emotion, she turned to run from behind the squad car, grief disguising any regard for her own safety.  
Derek’s arms wrapped around her, pulling back behind the car before she could pass him. “JJ, JJ, the shooter is still in there. Will is gonna be okay. He’s got a vest.” His voice hardly registered as she struggled against his muscular arms, desperately trying to escape and find her way to Will. She had this engulfing fear that he was lying there, bleeding, and no-one would be there in time to help him.  
Emily’s gentle hands wrapped around her wrist, pulling the grounding weight of the Glock from JJ’s hand and setting it on the trunk of the police car, her free hand pulling JJ’s arms away from Derek’s face. “JJ, I need you to look at me.” Emily said soothingly. “JJ, sweetie, focus right here on me. SWAT is on their way in. As soon as the building is cleared, we’ll take you in.”  
As JJ finally brought herself to focus on the familiar woodsy brown of Emily’s eyes, the reality of what was occurring in front of her sunk through her stomach, and JJ collapsed into tears, being supported only by Morgan’s arms as he gently settled her against the trunk of the car.  
“Oh god.” JJ choked out in between sobs. “What if that’s him in there, Emily. I can’t live without him.”  
Emily knelt next to JJ, softly moving strands of hair out of the blonde’s face. “He’ll be okay. Will’s a fighter.” Her voice rung through JJ’s ears, and she grabbed at the faint hope that Emily was right, but deep in her bones, she couldn’t shake the feeling that they would be too late.  
“I can’t live without him, Emily.” She said hoarsely, roughly wiping her cheeks. “I can’t work for the BAU and give Henry a good life without him. I can’t do it.” She shook her head, tears returning to stain her cheeks as quickly as she could wipe them away. There was a quiet moment between the three of them, JJ’s sniffles the only thing to break the silence.  
After what felt like an eternity, Hotch’s radio crackling the all-clear was what drew JJ out of her silent vigil. She jumped up, turning to face her concerned supervisor. Emotions played across his face, despite his usual controlled expression. “Are you okay?” He asked kindly, reaching out to rest his free hand on her shoulder, his other hand loosely resting on his holstered sidearm. JJ nodded, and he lightly squeezed her shoulder. “Good. They need you inside. I’ll walk with you.”  
JJ took a deep breath and nodded once more, pulling her sidearm from where Emily had set it on the trunk of the squad car and re-holstering it securely. Hotch gave her one more concerned look, and then stepped forward with her, each step feeling like it was both centuries long and too short as they headed towards the bank where the unsub had holed up with Will and another officer. The courtyard passed by all too quickly and not quickly enough, and JJ paused before the doors, taking another deep breath as the anxiety that had built in her chest with each step came to a clutching halt around her heart. Hotch rested one hand on the back of her shoulder as his other hand opened the door, gently guiding JJ into the building as she took one more long breath.  
What she saw inside the bank’s lobby knocked the breath back out of her chest, and it felt like she couldn’t take a breath deep enough to recover it. The unsub, a scrawny man whose very body seemed to be made of dirt, had his hands cuffed behind his back as two Quantico PD officers were thoroughly patting him down. As she turned her head, her eyes seeming to move in slow motion as they came to focus on the center of the room, her heart unclenched, only to shatter.  
Will’s crumpled figure lay in the heart of the intricate tile design, his torso supported by the other officer, whose shoulders shook as he sobbed. The red slick across the floor next to them seemed odd, almost too still to be real, and yet, JJ knew what it meant as the crimson burned itself into her retinas.  
JJ opened her mouth to call out, to scream, to make some noise, hoping that Will would turn to face her and respond, to show some sign of life, but as her lips parted, the only sound that came through was a whimper. Once more the blonde’s blue eyes dulled with tears, and without consciously registering it, she found herself moving across the floor, stepping around the blood stain with an eerie grace to kneel by her husband’s corpse. The officer apologized again and again as he stepped away, his voice frail with emotion, but JJ couldn’t bring herself to focus on anything but her husband’s glassy green eyes, the unusually pale pallor to his face.  
“Will.” She whispered, her hand frantically stroking his cheek, a stark contrast to her barely audible call. “Will, baby, wake up.” She repeated, her voice gaining in volume. “Will, wake up. I need you. We have to go home to Henry.” Tears began to roll down her cheeks as she shook his shoulders, desperate to get some response from him, but nothing came.  
“Will!” JJ cried once more at the top of her lungs, collapsing against his cooling chest as her gently tears turned into hysteric sobs, paying no mind as her hands stained with her husband’s blood. “Please don’t leave me alone.” She choked out, her left hand clenching around the strap to his ballistics vest.  
JJ couldn’t bring herself back to reality, barely registering as Hotch gently pulled her away from Will’s corpse as the Medical Examiner arrived. He walked her back out to where Morgan and Emily were waiting, JJ’s blood covered hands clutched in front of her as if she were still holding onto Will. Emily took her home that evening, gently undressing her and helping her into the shower, and staying with the blonde through the long nights that followed, holding JJ through the night terrors and staining many t-shirts with tears. Henry stayed with Garcia at Hotch’s recommendation- it was hard enough losing his father at such a young age, seeing JJ in such a catatonic state would be sure to only make things harder on the child.


End file.
